Isolated NASA Team Ends Year-Long Mars Simulation In Hawaii (bbc.com)

An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes the BBC: A team of six people have completed a Mars simulation in Hawaii, where they lived in near isolation for a year. Since August 29th, 2015, the group lived in close quarters in a dome, without fresh air, fresh food or privacy... Having survived their year in isolation, the crew members said they were confident a mission to Mars could succeed. "I can give you my personal impression which is that a mission to Mars in the close future is realistic," Cyprien Verseux, a crew member from France, told journalists. "I think the technological and psychological obstacles can be overcome."

The team consisted of a French astro-biologist, a German physicist and four Americans -- a pilot, an architect, a journalist and a soil scientist... the six had to live with limited resources, wear a space-suit when outside the dome, and work to avoid personal conflicts. They each had a small sleeping cot and a desk inside their rooms. Provisions included powdered cheese and canned tuna.

Comments

Eh, was this necessary?

[Ecuador]

Was this really necessary? We've had people on ISS go on for almost a year, the Russians made a ground-based test lasting for a year an a half and if you want to go to even harder simulations of solitary missions, we've had many Slashdot members go on for years isolated in front of a screen (let's call it mars spaceship control center) without fresh water or fresh food (only carbonated sodas and reheated pizza)... right there in their mom's basement. And actually many of them were in a ground-braking 2-level simulation, as they were simulating a mission to mars through KSP at the same time!

Re:Eh, was this necessary?

[JoeMerchant]

It's a good analogy, but on a boat you at least have open-air - and even if you don't jump overboard and take a swim for a year, you could if you really wanted to.

I think a nuclear submarine is a better analogy, though they (and long boat trips) tend to have much larger crews and more living space.

Phase 2 testing

[Nidi62]

Now they need to try again underwater. Have to deal with pressurization issues of the living areas, a truly hostile environment outside, and of course the conscious realization on the part of the team that if things go wrong they go really wrong. Just adding in the additional stress of knowing there is a good possibility of dying if things go wrong could really change the psychological affects of the isolation and could cause real problems as more time is spent in isolation.

Of course, it should go without saying to make sure that, should this kind of study be done, make sure the team down there stays away from any perfectly spherical objects they might run across. That tends to lead to bad outcomes in underwater habitats.

low-danger volunteer selection bias

[doug141]

One of the participants said his reason for volunteering for the mission was the great opportunity to "act like an astronaut for a year." I think the motivation and psyche profile of dangerous-mission astronauts is likely to be very different.

Submarines

[flyingfsck]

Nuclear submariners do this all the time. Why is it necessary for NASA to do these 'experiments?

Re:Provisions

[JoeMerchant]

They didn't care enough to vary the communication delay to match orbital positions?